>>7613212It's standard in chemistry papers to use formal charge to imply the presence or absence of protons, without drawing the protons themselves. In this case, the absence of any formal charges would imply that this is an enolate resonance (the reactive version with a nucleophilic alpha carbon), which is an overall neutral molecule, but not what the OP meant. It would still be non-standard and confusing to draw no charges (or lone pairs) for such an enolate resonance, but drawing no charges for a charged molecule would be ridiculous.
What are you, undergrad chem?
